Adoke: Shettima persuaded me to return from exile after my OPL 245 ordeal

Mohammed Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, says Kashim Shettima, the vice-president, persuaded him to return to Nigeria after the OPL 245 prosecution ordeal.

Adoke spoke in Abuja on Thursday at the public presentation of his memoir, ‘OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 billion Nigerian oil block’.

Adoke was the AGF from 2010 to 2015 under the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan.

He was one of the primary defendants in the Oil Prospecting Lease No 245 case which became a subject of global corruption investigations, criminal prosecution and civil cases across the world.

The OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil in 1998 by the Sani Abacha regime. However, the Nigerian oil company sold its entire interest to Shell and Eni for $1.1 billion in 2011.

The administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged Adoke with fraud, bribery and conspiracy in the OPL deal.

Adoke was acquitted of all charges over four years later.

During the prosecution, Adoke was mainly in self-exile overseas.

At the book presentation, Adoke said he was determined to head abroad for the second time after the “verdicts by the various courts”.

He noted that Shettima advised him to return to Nigeria and “put a closure to this saga”.

“Permit me, your excellency, to inform this audience that after the verdicts by the various courts were over, I opted to go back into exile,” Adoke said.

“In fact, I left. It was to the credit of the vice-president who called me one day and said, ‘Come back to Nigeria, you have to put a closure to this saga’.”

Also at the book presentation, Adoke said he had forgiven everyone behind his ordeal during the prosecution.